Yes, a Famed Japanese “Vagina Artist” was Arrested on Vagina-Related Charges Recently

You’ve probably seen the headline on your Facebook feed by now – probably coming from that creepy guy who always “likes” your bikini pics but doesn’t say anything, so you just picture him on his computer sort of breathing heavily – that Japan’s famed “Vagina Artist,” Megumi Igarashi, has been arrested on obscenity charges.

The charges stem from her sharing 3D printing plans online to create a mold of her girl parts. The plans were actually distributed as part of a Kickstarter goal for people who contributed a certain amount to her ridiculously awesome Vagina Kayak. One gets the feeling Tokyo detectives knew about the Kickstarter project and were waiting in the reeds – all the while shifting uncomfortably and complaining they “need to sit down for a while” (get it? They had boners) – for the plans to go online so they could make their morality police move.

If only Igarashi had distributed her plans with a built-in 3D mosaic effect, everything would have been fine.

Igarashi’s arrest reveals – as if it wasn’t obvious already – a clear hypocrisy in Japan. At the Kanamara Matsuri every year, the penis is celebrated with enormous penis statues that are hoisted upon the shoulders of men and (sometimes topless) women, yet a woman distributing stylized images of her vagina is apparently obscene. Ironically, the Kanamara Matsuri features vagina imagery, but it’s typically created and distributed by men, who seem to get a pass from the authorities.

We’re sure international backlash (Igarashi has hookups with the Western media, after all) will lead to Igarashi’s swift release and pardon.